Crash site | Rio de Janeiro airport, Brazil |
Airline | Panair do Brasil |
Aircraft | Douglas DC-8 – PP-PDT – Bras Cubas |
Route | Buenos Aires – Rio de Janeiro – Lisbon |
Crew | 11 – 10 survivors |
Passengers | 94 – 80 survivors |
The crash
The plane arrived at Rio de Janeiro/Galeao airport after an uneventful flight from Buenos Aires. Another crew took over for the last segment of the flight across the Atlantic to Portugal.
Shortly after the takeoff run had begun the pilot encountered problems. It was not possible to stop the plane on the remaining portion of the runway, so the pilot turned the plane to the right and continued through the airport concrete wall crossing the adjoining highway and finally at 22:08 the plane ended in the Guanabara Bay 50 meters from the shore. It drifted 100 meters while floating and then sank to a depth of 8 meters.
The mail
A large part of the mail was salvaged in watersoaked condition. All the mail was forwarded from Brazil with a black 2-line handstamp.
So far I have only seen Nordic mail addressed to Finland where a special label was used.
A.
Brazilian handstamp.
Black.
Size: 47 x 13 mm.
B.
Finnish label.
Size of textblock: ?
Translation:
Damaged 20.8.1962 in an air accident outside of Rio de Janeiro.
Helsinki Post Office.
Examples of mail
Cover from Argentina to Finland with partly illegible postmark as one stamp is missing. The cover show the Brazilian handstamp type A and the Finnish label type B. |
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